La Roux and Catfish And The Bottlemen Play Intimate London Gig

The gig was in support of Zig-Zag Rolling Papers' Rolling With... campaign

La Roux and Catfish and the Bottlemen played an intimate gig at London’s Scala last night (September 3) as part of Zig-Zag Rolling Papers’ Rolling With… campaign.

In front of a packed crowd, Elly Jackson and her four-piece band played an energetic mix of songs from her first and second albums, ‘La Roux’ and ‘Trouble In Paradise’. After opener ‘Uptight Downtown’ she told the crowd, “This is our last show of the year,” before rushing into a funky version of debut single ‘In For The Kill’. Wearing a red blazer to match her trademark red quiff, Jackson danced her way through ‘Kiss And Not Tell’ and ‘I’m Not Your Toy’, drawing huge cheers from the front rows.

“Someone just called me a fatty,” Jackson noted towards the end of the set, sounding bemused. But the singer quickly brushed off the remark, and went on to close the performance with a dancey rendition of 2009 hit ‘Bulletproof’.

Caitlin Mogridge/NME

Offering something much noisier than La Roux, Catfish And The Bottlemen arrived dressed head to toe in black and opened with ‘Rango’. Playing the same tightly honed festival set that proved such a hit at Reading And Leeds last month, the Llandudno rockers caused havoc in the crowd. Frontman Van McCann stopped to pose for a fan’s photograph and a circle pit broke out during a raucous ‘Homesick’. By the time the quartet broke into riotous closer ‘Tyrants’, some audience members had clambered onto their friends’ shoulders to get a closer look. After a quick “Thank you!” frontman Van McCann left his guitar hanging from his mic stand and the band departed amidst wailing feedback.